Pentium B950 & exta RAM vs Intel i3 2330M

sshnuke

Hi There

Two laptops which I'm looking at have different processing specs and I don't know which is better:

Acer 5749 - Intel Pentium B950 with 6gb ram (2.5kg)

Samsung NP300E5A - Intel i3 2330M with 4gb ram (2.3kg)

I'd like a laptop that is fairly portable and the Samsung at 2.3kg is really appealing. Can you tell me if there will be a noticeable difference between the two laptops in speed? I know the Pentium on the Samsung is slower but I thought the extra ram might make up for it.

At the end of the day I'd like the fastest machine which can do the most mundane of tasks but also not have to worry about whether it will cope with playing games from time to time.

Thanks

Lum

The i3 processor in the Samsung is the superior processor. You can compare the specs here:

B950 - i3 2330M

Both are dual core, but the i3 has hyperthreading which allows it to (sort of) behave like a quad core in the right circumstances, the B950 does not. The i3 is also slightly faster at 2.2 GHz instead of 2.1 GHz.

As for the RAM, for most normal people 4GB will be enough. Windows will make use of the extra RAM to improve disc caching, which may make for slightly faster application startup time, but I doubt you will notice much difference.

In any case, upgrading the RAM on a laptop is easy. On that Samsung laptop it's one screw (Page 80 of the manual). Replacing a processor is much much harder and more expensive.

For playing games, your biggest concern is the graphics card however, not the processor. Both of these laptops use integrated graphics. The Samsung uses Intel HD Graphics 3000, the Acer uses Intel HD Graphics 2000.

Neither of these are particularly great for modern high powered games, but the Samsung is the better of the two. You need to decide what sort of games you're wanting to play. Do you mean Farmville or Call of Duty?

sshnuke

Bowled over by your helpfulness. Thank you!!

I actually screwed up and mixed things up a bit...

Acer 5749 - Intel i3 2330M with 4gb ram (2.3kg)

Samsung NP300E5A - Intel Pentium B950 with 6gb ram (2.5kg)

Which of course would have led you to conclude the Acer is better. (Forgive me. It's been a long day.) I'll do a bit more shopping around for something with better specs. It's good to know it's easy to upgrade on the memory.

I hate to admit it but yes, I'd hoped to be able to play games like Warcraft. Is it unwise to go for something so low powered? (I'm actually buying the laptop for someone in Jamaica who will use it mostly for surfing etc but I had hoped to use it myself for playing games. )

I have one more quick question. The person I'm buying the laptop for lives in Jamaica. (The prices are extortionate in JA.) Should I buy a transformer as well? Something like this: http://www.maplin.co.uk/usa-uk-step-up-100va-24488

Lum

World of Warcraft will actually run on an HD 3000, but only on low or medium settings.

I don't know how easy it is to upgrade the memory on that Acer, googling shows that it a lot harder as you have to take the entire bottom half of the chassis off, so expect 20 tiny screws that all look alike yet are all subtly different! 4GB will be fine for most stuff anyway. The vast majority of games out there are still only 32bit without LAA anyway (Translation: They can only use 2GB, leaving another 2GB for the operating system)

It is very unlikely that you will need a transformer, nearly all laptop transformers will run at 100-240V and 50-60Hz. The only thing it will need is a new plug putting on, or a replacement cable, which can be obtained locally for not too much money.

One thing that may be a concern, or at least an annoyance, is that Jamaica use the US keyboard layout, which is slightly different from a UK layout, e.g. no £ sign, @ obtained by pressing shift+2 etc. If this is not intended as a surprise you might want to check with the recipient first.

sshnuke

Thanks for the info on games. It's so handy to know this information. At least I know what this kind of spec is capable of which is a helluva lot more than I knew this morning.

Thanks too for the info on memory. Again. Really good to know.

Thankfully, the UK keyboard layout won't be a problem.

I'm just a litte confused with the transformer thing. The main reason I asked was because my parents house in JA has UK wiring\sockets and JA wiring\sockets. We did a bit of testing on the sockets when I was over there earlier this year. When we plugged a UK kettle into a Jamaican socket (with a travel adaptor) it took much longer to heat up than when plugging it into the UK sockets. I thought the same logic would apply to the laptop? Or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Lum

I don't know what electricity standard Jamaica uses, but the worst case scenario is that it uses the American standard, which is 120V at 60Hz. For comparison the UK uses 230-240V at 50Hz.

A cheap UK-made device which is not intended to travel worldwide will be designed to work with one standard. The heating element in your kettle is likely designed for 240V so when provided with half of that it's not going to work so well. Other cheaply made UK-only devices such as televisions will possibly not work at all.

However thanks to globalisation such devices are becoming increasingly rare. For mass produced devices intended to be sold worldwide it is more cost effective to design a power supply that can work on any electricity standard, then you can just crank them out of a single factory in China and not have to worry about where they end up, all you need to do is ensure the correct plug goes on the end at your local distribution point.

For laptops this has been a non-issue for years. Laptops are expected to travel worldwide and you don't want your sales executive having to lug around a hulking great transformer with them as well. The power supply will be a worldwide model.

Edit: Found this.
http://www.adaptelec.com/index.php?main_page=document_general_info&products_id=269

sshnuke

Wow. Again, fantastically helpful. Thanks for putting on ur superwoman cape and coming back with the link for info on Jamaica. It's good to know I don't have to worry about all that stuff.

Totes Amaze.

Thank you!!!